Sour Grapes Post Election 2012

Thursday, November 8, 2012

A Nightmare for the Old Massa!!

Something about this picture (and Bill O'Rielley) just really reminds me of what I often imagine was in my GREAT - GRANDFATHER --- James A Anderson of South Carolina (b abt 1830 d. 1910 ? )

Cocky, ignorant... self-perpetuating..... proud...

Karl Rove was the political genius of the
George W. Bush era -- the architect of the last Republican president's two
electoral victories. But this week, he may have had the worst election night of
anybody in American politics.

Not only did Rove insist on Fox News that
Ohio was still winnable for Republican challenger Mitt Romney after all the TV
networks had called it for President Barack Obama -- causing anchor Megyn Kelly
to march down to the Fox "decision desk" mavens, who assured her on air that
they were "99.9 percent" confident in their call -- but his trailblazing
"independent" super PAC operation was virtually shut out on election night.

American Crossroads spent heavily, not
just on Romney, but on attack ads on behalf of GOP Senate candidates in eight
states -- thanks to mega contributions from conservative donors like metals
magnate Harold Simmons ($19.5 million), Texas homebuilder Bob Perry ($7.5
million) and Omni hotel chief Robert Rowling ($5 million.)

The super donors didn't get much for their
money. Six of the eight GOP Senate candidates that American Crossroads spent
money to try to elect – Tommy Thompson in Wisconsin, George Allen in Virginia,
Josh Mandel in Ohio, Richard Mourdock in Indiana, Denny Rehberg in Montana and
Todd Akin in Missouri – lost their races, along with Romney. The group did, on
the other hand, help to elect Deb Fischer in Nebraska and Dean Heller in
Nevada.

(The Sunlight Foundation calculation of
"return on investment" was based on the percentage of money it spent on
individual races-- and since Crossroads spent the most on the races it lost on,
the group earned its low 1 percent "return on investment" or ROI.

Some in his own party also were
unimpressed by the performance of Rove's Crossroads operation. Donald Trump
posted a message on Twitter saying: “Congrats to @KarlRove on blowing $400
million cycle. Every race @CrossroadsGPS ran ads in, the Republicans lost. What
a waste of money.”

The American Crossroads debacle was only
the most dramatic example of the limits of big money in this election, according
to the Sunlight Foundation report. About $1.3 billion was spent by outside
groups overall -- about two-thirds on the Republican side -- and for the most
part their returns were equally low. The Chamber of Commerce, for example, spent
$31 million-and had a 5 percent return, according to the Sunlight study. The
conservative American Future Fund spent
$23.9 million and also realized a 5 percent return. The National Rifle
Association spent $11 million, and got shut out.

"It may mean people really don't like big
money in politics," says Kathy Kiely, the Sunlight Foundation analyst who
co-authored the study. "Maybe they prefer it be spent on something else."